Haimiya-senpai wa Kowakute Kawaii - Ch. 43

[BlackSword]

I'm willing to be proven wrong because I personally don't remember. But is there any substantial evidence that hinted that he ad a crippling fear of playing in front of crowds. I think maybe a deeper exploration into his relationship with his family sprinkled throughout the story up to this point. Like maybe if there was sense of awkwardness and tension between him and his mom and/or and underlying jealousy towards his sister.

Imo when trauma dumps land without prior setup, it comes across as manufactured drama rather than earned storytelling. But that's just me.

Do you casually discuss traumatic experiences around the water cooler? Especially in front of the cool, scary senpai you find gorgeous and would like to impress? In fact, how many people at do you know whose traumas you also know?

An important theme in this manga, intentional or not, is facades. There are tons of things we don't know, just like the characters don't know. Take Koyuki's half-baked plan to befriend Mio - stupid, yes, but she's young and she thought it was a good idea. Why did Mio go along with it? She considered her ramen habit embarrassing and didn't want it known.

I agree it was abrupt as story development, but I found it realistic in how no one could guess based on Ao's facade. Put another way - if Ao's godly guitar skill without foreshadowing caused no grumbling, why should his trauma?

 

[Ryan_Irsyd]

It’s incredibly easy to say that from the perspective of our age and emotional maturity.
He was still just a kid—and on top of that, he had an inferiority complex caused by his strict parents.
Do you think it would be that easy for him to say that?
Come on, try to put yourselves in the context.

As someone who went through the same context (minus the getting yelled at classmates at), I can confirm he might try to play the piano to prove himself and like you expected, it backfired completely.

At least in my case it was a group singing contest, and while my voice stuck on my throat, I just lip sync with my friends' singing. It still leaves a scar for quite some time though

 

[WitchKing]

This isn't Twitter with its infantile trigger warnings. Life happens and gives no shits about timing or feelings, just as we saw with Ao. While it was abrupt, it was also realistic, right down to the confusion the others felt when he freaked out.

Also, his sisters didn't "get out of the mother's hook." Unlike Ao, they had actual talent for the piano. Our boy, by contrast, seems to have the same gift as his (dead?) father.

The hell are you talk about? No one in a sane mind would allow this shit to happen in case a kid from an elementary school freaks out during performance. The organizers should have stepped in the moment they saw that kid got a mental block and stopped doing anything, like the other guy from this thread said before - that is a proper response for adults, not "OK, let's sing without music" bullshit

And again - what exactly do you mean? His younger sister is terra incognita in terms of piano play and his older one is the one who was said has outstanding talent. And now this talent studies in the beauty school instead of conservatory regardless of the obsessive mother, so yes - she is out of her mother's hook

 

[BlackSword]

The hell are you talk about? No one in a sane mind would allow this shit to happen in case a kid from an elementary school freaks out during performance. The organizers should have stepped in the moment they saw that kid got a mental block and stopped doing anything, like the other guy from this thread said before - that is a proper response for adults, not "OK, let's sing without music" bullshit

And again - what exactly do you mean? His younger sister is terra incognita in terms of piano play and his older one is the one who was said has outstanding talent. And now this talent studies in the beauty school instead of conservatory regardless of the obsessive mother, so yes - she is out of her mother's hook

The freak out I was referencing was the light music club one, which was a highly visible one, too. What happened in elementary school was a complete freeze, it didn't become a complete freak out until afterwards.

As you saw in the manga, absolutely no effort was made to have a back up pianist. As for this "organizers should have stepped in," this is not taking place in America. They had no back up, and in Japanese culture, saving face is far more important than our boy Ao being an ice sculpture. Singing without musical accompaniment is far less shameful than not singing.

The sisters are named Sora (20) and Umi (14), so the Kurose siblings are "sky," "blue," and "sea." The youngest is an accomplished pianist and also has club activities related to music. The eldest is also an accomplished pianist and goes to beauty school. Despite Ao's well-established inferiority complex, the three of them get along. Remind me how we know nothing again?

To me, your argument that Sora going to beauty school means she is "out of the hook" isn't a strong one. There aren't any blockers from her doing auditions and performances, heck beautician is really flexible when it comes to scheduling.

 

[Retsu_Kurenai]

When your self-worth depends entirely on winning accolades from the outside world instead of coming from within you inevitably head down a self-destructive path. That environment exists because his mom built it that way, even if unintentionally. I will not go as far as to say she treated her kids differently depending on how well they played piano since I do not think there is enough information to confirm that. Though there is definitely a lack of warmth coming from her whenever piano gets involved. I am not suggesting she should have babied Kurose. Just giving words of affirmation that even without winning he was still someone special would have gone a long way.

Especially her words You can quit now Kurose must have cut deeper than any blade. Talk about stabbing and twisting the knife. I do not know if she thought it was mercy or giving him some sense of reprieve but those were the last words he needed to hear in that moment. The complete lack of awareness and emotional intelligence to recognize how Kurose felt and what he needed is poor parenting. She essentially destroyed any tangible sense of worth he had left and there was not much left to begin with. It explains why his self-esteem ended up in the gutter. It has gotten better over time but it clarifies why he prioritizes everyone else's worth over his own. Acting out of selfishness or for himself would hurt everyone around him in his eyes.

And I'm not sure if that was the author's intention when it came to this. Maybe they thought that his lack of confidence was enough to warrant this flashback. But I am in full aggreance that it could have been better executed.

Finally someone with Media Literacy and Perspective Understanding....